We are strong in our faith

We are strong in our faith.

We are meant to be tough, defenders of the faith and each other.

We are supposed to be public with our faith, march down Main Street on Palm Sunday, freely express our faith.

We shall be protected by the Armor of Light, we shall preach from the street corners, we shall converse with God and share God’s word, our default way of life shall be found within the boundaries and contours of our faith, we are supposed to stand strong in our faith.

“For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.”

Ask me what I’m doing on Sunday, I’ll be at church.

Monday?

Praying.

Tuesday through Friday? Something similar.

Saturday?

Taking a day off and most likely praying some more, we are strong in our faith.

“If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that?”

Faith is the easy part.

Loving God is simple.

Hearing the word, dwelling in the word, living the word, yes, Lord.

Please!

“But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.”

And our faith is strong.

We worship from a place of strength.

We know we are loved by God.

We know we are loved by God and from that love we can take on the world.

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.””

For God loves us and is a just God.

God loves us and will see us through the tough times.

God will stand with us.

God will hold us.

God will carry us, we are made stronger by God and under God’s rule and through God’s love we will overcome injustice.

“When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”

The abuser will come to justice; the abused will find a balm in the arms of Christ.

God’s justice will reign and all shall be loved by God who do good and who love God.

Our faith is justice.

Our faith is strong.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

We are strong in our faith.

And yet.

And yet is it a credit to us to endure pain while suffering injustice?

There seems to be a disconnect here.

Is not our faith supposed to be a source of strength?

Are we not to fight injustice rather than meekly suffering from it?

Are we not to break down the walls injustice creates rather than facing those walls as we endure the pain of injustice’s wrath?

I thought, Lord, this was all to strengthen me and bring me closer to you.

Why, Lord, must I suffer?

Why, Lord, must I suffer as you did upon the cross?

Let’s take a step back.

Let’s reflect on how things used to be and the audience Peter is speaking to.

Christianity was not always the majority religion.

For a good long time, Christianity was very much practiced by those in the minority.

And many believers were poor, they held no real power.

They were on the outskirts.

Maligned by the powerful, they were the other.

They were maligned.

They were persecuted.

They were beaten and abused.

This is to who Peter is talking.

He is not talking to the powerful Roman general tasked with beating the Christian prisoner, no, Peter is talking to the prisoner.

He is not talking to the merchant, the proud head of household, he is talking to the servant and the slave.

And he is trying to keep them safe.

This budding religion, this new word of Christ is percolating through the kitchens and servants’ quarters of Empire, the closed in tenements of the poor, the only property they hold is the love of Christ and each other, a secreted cross, the imprint of a fish.

And Peter knows that if they became public, if they struck back against the lash of injustice then this nascent Christian movement would face further injustice, become more susceptible to harm.

If they were to raise their heads then perhaps these folks, the maligned and the outsiders, would lose them.

For Christianity was a threat to the very essence of the empire.

For the Roman Empire was not built through peace and love but through the exploitation of resources both material and human.

An empire built on constant expansion through war and deceit.

Any threat to that expansion, any religion proclaiming love for each other and the siblingship of every human being must be dealt with.

So, Peter, knowing Christ’s followers could be facing abuse, is stating that they must learn to face that abuse nobly, and with the very grace Christ faced his own passion and murder.

Peter is not asking his fellow Christians to hide their faith, but to live in a manner consistent with their faith amongst those who are set to abuse them.

Peter is saying, “Look, I know it’s hard but there are times when we will face persecution and we have to face that persecution as our savior did, not with the sword and not with the spear but with the strength it takes to stay nonviolent in a violent world set against us.”

And yet, in this day and age, we are not as maligned and nowhere near as abused for being Christian, so what does this reading mean for us in this day and age?

Certainly, our numbers are shrinking, churches aren’t as filled as they used to be, Sundays aren’t as important as they used to be, but we are not subject to the persecution our forebears were, in this country at least.

What lesson are we to take from this reading?

I referenced this morning’s entire reading throughout the beginning of this sermon.

Except for one sentence: “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

We were going astray.

We were worshiping the wrong gods.

We were persecuting our savior through the streets of Jerusalem.

But now, now we are on the better path.

We have returned to the shepherd; we have found salvation crossing through the gate.

Though we may have not experienced the same wrath as those in the early church, the lesson remains: do not counter abuse with abuse, do not malign others as we have been maligned.

Justice originates through Christ and Christ will mete out that justice while loving all peoples.

When we face injustice though, Peter is saying act as Jesus did but there is no need to tolerate it.

We cannot overcome violence with violence but only with nonviolence and injustice is violence.

And justice work will involve the uncomfortable truth that we must suffer some to serve God and to act as Jesus did, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.”

There is work to be done.

It is hard work.

Yet to right the wrongs of an unjust past, we must confront a just future built through God’s love, not human love, God’s justice, not the approximation of human justice.

When we serve God, we are opening ourselves up to the various vulnerabilities such a perfect love dictates.

We are opening ourselves people turning away from us for they run from God’s love.

We are vulnerable to a secular society eschewing our love for they seek fulfilment elsewhere.

We perhaps feel hurt and disappointment when we sit in emptying pews.

Yet Christ’s love for us gives us the strength to carry on in a time of a declining church just as Christ’s love supported us in a time when the Christian church was just beginning to stir.

Yes, there is work to be done and some of that work may hurt but we shall never be the cause of pain or suffering or sorrow.

No, when faced with such things we shall be strong, for Christ was strong.

We shall be graceful for Christ was full of grace.

We shall carry with us that lesson for we are strong in our faith.

Amen.